It's your firm. Whether you're a founding partner, the managing partner, a line partner, head of a practice group or department, if you're truly professional you care about it as if it were your firm. You never let it slip too far from your thought. Subliminally, if not consciously, you're thinking about how to run your firm (department, team, etc.) better (efficiently, profitably, etc.) because that goes with the territory.

If running an accounting firm was easy, anybody could do it. As history has shown us, it is anything but easy. This is a particularly difficult time to have a leadership role because life is good, if not bordering on great, at most firms. Leadership is easiest in crisis because crisis provides direction, motivation, clarity and a general willingness in others to do what leaders ask. In times of easy success, it's often difficult to convince others for the need to change.

Workload compression is top-of-mind at tax season's end and always on your mind is the staffing crisis. These are on-going issues that require constant attention. There are challenges ahead that require new thinking for successful solutions. Doing the same things you've done in the past won't give you the same results tomorrow. In an economy recovery, your firm faces numerous challenges. Among them,

• Re-evaluate how you plan your future,

• Commit to the core values that will enhance strong management,

• Clearly define partner roles and responsibilities,

• Find your differentiating factor as a firm and as an individual,

• Evaluate how you've progressed in this profession of business advisors,

• Consider that price and valuation aren't as important in the long-term success of merger/acquisition,

• Whether non-equity partner makes sense or is an albatross,

• Understand the meanings, and differences between, branding and positioning,

• When market conditions are good, planned growth helps avoid later disasters,

• Exposing success at the bottom line may be the deciding factor in the race for human capital,

• Investing in management, leadership and marketing programs is the only way to assure a generational firm,

• Security in communicating with clients,

• Resource allocation and managing client acceptance are critical in the on-going staffing crisis,

• Prices for smaller accounting firms will drop, perhaps drastically,

• Managing the return-on-investment in marketing activities, and

• Optimizing productivity per person will require better use of technology, training and documentation.

Where there are challenges there are solutions. In an effort to help you find solutions to your practice challenges, BOWMAN's asked some of our profession's best thinkers forecast your challenges ahead and suggest innovative solutions. As often as possible, they used an innovative format that allowed them to grab a topic of their choice, look at the big trend, tell us the unconventional wisdom, expose the misplaced assumption and the make the bold prediction.  Below, read though leader Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITPs views on these questions.  To learn what others such as Don Scholl, Marc Rosenberg, Gerry Risken, Bill Reeb, Jeff Pawlow, Jay Nisberg, Wayne Harding, Bob Martin, Bruce Marcus, Todd MacDonald, Bob Gallagher, Allan Koltin, Chris Fredericksen, August Aquila, Gale Crosley, Jean Marie Caragher, and Steve Erickson had to say, please contact Art Bowman at awbowman@bowmancomm.com and ask about BOWMAN FirstAlert.

Roman Kepczyk on Future CPA Technology

The Big Trend

Optimized use of technology, particularly integrated workflow and information management will be the key to future firm productivity. There is no end in sight for the staffing shortage so, to remain profitable, firms will need to increase productivity of all personnel. This will occur through a combination of improved digital workflow tools and maximizing the use of information the firm already has within its systems. The major accounting vendors will be integrating their databases to help with some of this, but firms will take this to the next level by using knowledge management and workflow capabilities found within applications, particularly Microsoft SharePoint.

The Unconventional Wisdom

The charge to integrated knowledge management will be led by entrepreneurial CPA firms working with local network integrators that have extensive Microsoft SharePoint experience and not by the major accounting vendors. The big vendors will add these capabilities but they will be constrained by the limitations of their existing applications.

The Misplaced Assumption

Don't let the IT department drive the firm's knowledge management initiatives as their focus is primarily on maintaining as stable an environment as possible, which goes counter to promoting change. The push to tomorrow's digital CPA firm will be driven from technologically capable personnel within the firm's tax, audit, and client service departments as they become aware of the available tools and are exposed to how they can be used.

The Watch List

Early on, firms will look to their accounting vendors, particularly CCH and Creative Solutions, for enhanced capabilities such as integrated workflow with tax and document management applications, as well as dashboards linked to practice management. This will evolve with awareness of the customization capabilities of Microsoft SharePoint that will allow firms to create and manage data any way they want to for those that have the time and resources to develop it. For firms wanting this integration today, vendors such as Knowledge Concepts Firmworks will provide solutions that are as close to turnkey as possible today.

The Bold Prediction

As the staffing shortage becomes worse, firms will focus on optimizing productivity per person, which means not only spending more on technology to improve processes, but also allocating more resources than ever towards the training and documentation to make it a reality.

Roman H. Kepczyk, CPA.CITP is president of InfoTech Partners North America, Inc. and works exclusively with CPA firms to implement today’s leading best practices and technologies.  Contact him at (480) 706-1728 or roman@itpna.com.